Why is this working?

[Gianni Brera]

So a while ago, I played a season with Verona, and after a rather bad start I went into a sort of survival mode, trying to frustrate and sabotage my opponents to at least get me some 0-0 results. I simply deployed a 3-1-4-2 (or 3-5-2 DM) with a DM, and two BWM's in front of him. The strangest part about that tactic was, it had only support duties. I wanted my strikers to drop deep and cut off passing lanes into the central midfield, I wanted my midfield trio to stay close, and my wing backs to do a bit of everything and help bring the ball forward. It was dull, it was boring, and half of my games ended like a 0-0 draw. But the other half, I won with 1-0. I ended up almost qualifying for European football with Verona. I dont know why, but I got that solid brand of football I needed.

Now Ive just begun a save with Atletico, and from the moment I implemented something similar, I stopped conceding goals and started winning in an utterly boring fashion. But it gets the job done.

The only things I tweak with are the player roles themselves (sometimes I apply more creative roles against smaller sides) and the team mentality, which I adjust to the needs of the match. My ball possession is usually around 60%, my shots per game are usually around 9, with really only 2 or 3 on target. But thats also about the amount of shots the opponents get.

Why is this working? It feels like an unnatural tactic, but for me its simply very effective. I wouldnt even know what to call it. When I need a goal we just keep banging on the door on attack mentality, and when its suddenly there I let the players sit back on cautious or even on Defensive mentality. 

[Skywalk3r83]

Wow 😄👌🏻

[nexting]

Things you love to see 👌 

[prched55]

On 22/04/2022 at 14:42, Gianni Brera said:

Why is this working? It feels like an unnatural tactic, but for me its simply very effective. I wouldnt even know what to call it. When I need a goal we just keep banging on the door on attack mentality, and when its suddenly there I let the players sit back on cautious or even on Defensive mentality. 

All your duties are on support so players are surrounded by people. The distribution of roles creates a lot of triangles and wide overloads on both sides of the pitch. Your rest defense is really good because of the double DM and then the WB won't move super far forward unless you are camping in the opponent's half. 

It's also super flexible. You can change a couple roles and duties and nothing else and make it super attacking. You can change a couple team instructions and make it super quick and direct or super slow and possession heavy. You can change things based on the players you have available for any game and still make it logical and consistent with your overall strategy. You made a super great tactic. 

[linguistpilot]

@Gianni Brera try to switch your DMs to HBs and observe the results. Also, see what happens if you move the WBs forward, make them DWs or WMs. I've been using these shapes as well, leads to some good play.

[hehehemann]

I think the secret is Support roles. 

I usually have mostly support roles, maybe one or two players are not, defenders on Defend then the rest of the tactic is support duties. Use it with Positive mentality and little else and you just dominate matches. 

[Outsider23]

I wonder if the front three are incredibly effective at disrupting opponents who like to try and maintain possession in central areas.